Jay WAR leaders

Monday, May 17 2010 @ 01:02 PM EDT

Contributed by: John Northey

Good ol' Baseball Reference has just eaten up more of my time. They added WAR (Wins Above Replacement) ratings for all of the Jays era and beyond. So, who are the best Jays by this measure and do we agree with it at all?

Note: the figures do not include 2010.

For the Jays the all time career leaders...
Offense:

  1. Carlos Delgado: 33.8
  2. Tony Fernadez: 33.3
  3. Jesse Barfield: 27.2 (!)
  4. Vernon Wells: 23.7 (highest active)
Bit of a surprise to see Barfield so high - I think we all forget just how good he was and how many runs his defense saved (over 20 4 times, amazing for a right fielder - for comparison Tony Fernandez/Alex Gonzalez #1 & 2 have never cracked 15 at shortstop, while Ozzie Smith [top SS defense ever to many] only did it 4 times and Roberto Clemente [in RF, viewed as best ever] only 4 times and Willie Mays just twice). Extremely tight race between Fernandez & Delgado - a slight change to the formula could easily shift the #1/2 positions.

Pitching...
  1. Dave Stieb: 53.6
  2. Roy Halladay: 47.4
  3. Jimmy Key: 27.8 (big drop off)
  4. Pat Hentgen: 25.3 (last one 25+)
  5. ...
  6. Scott Downs (tied for #18): 7.7 (highest active)
No shock for the top 4, or for the spread between Stieb/Halladay and Key/Hentgen (Clancy & Guzman are the others over 20). Clemens is next with Henke at #8 (16.5) the highest rated reliever. Ricky Romero just makes the top 50 with 2.4 WAR. What is funny is if you go by wins you still get a very similar top 5 - Clancy moves to #3 ahead of Key & Hentgen otherwise the top 5 stay the same.

What about individual seasons?
Hitting...
  1. John Olerud 1993: 8.2
  2. Jesse Barfield 1986: 7.3
  3. Vernon Wells 2006: 6.7
  4. Jesse Barfield 1985: 6.6
    Fred McGriff 1989: 6.6
The rest of the top 10 include two seasons each for Delgado & Alomar with Moseby sneaking in there. 4 of the top 15 are from 1993 (no shock). Last year's Scutaro & Hill seasons come in #17 and #18 all time. George Bell's 1987 MVP season comes in #23 at 5.0 WAR tied with Tony Fernandez of the same season. Other 6+ seasons include another McGriff season, and Devon White's 1993. Multiple 6+ years were done by Barfield, McGriff, Delgado and Alomar. Of note on defense: Devo has 3 of those 20+ seasons including a 33 run saved season (amazing) in 1992.
Pitching...
  1. Roger Clemens 1997: 10.3
  2. Pat Hentgen 1996: 8.4
  3. Dave Stieb 1984: 7.7
  4. Roger Clemens 1998: 7.5
    Roy Halladay 2003: 7.5
The next 2 are Halladay seasons (including 2009's season) with seasons over 6 including a total of 4 Halladay years, 4 Stieb years, 2 Clemens, plus Hentgen, Key, Guzman, and Eichhorn's amazing 1986 season. The big shock is seeing Hentgen's '96 so high. I doubt many would rank it above Stieb's peak or Halladay's. His 265.2 IP (league leading) #2 ERA in the league (156 ERA+) both helped a lot I suspect as does his 10 complete games (forgot he lead for 96 and 97 in CG and shutouts then never cracked 200 IP again). That was a heck of a season for Hentgen. No one currently on the Jays has had a season in the top 50 (3.3 WAR required) with Marcum's 3.1 in 2008 coming the closest (I think).

Biggest things this shows us is to appreciate just how good Jesse Barfield was, how amazing Hentgen's peak season was, and how consistently amazing Halladay was here. Any surprising seasons/players not in the top 5?

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